Thursday, October 24, 2013

SUPERMAN'S PAL JIMMY OLSEN 40, October 1959, was published around August 20, 1959. It contained 32 pages for the cover price of a dime. The editor was Mort Weisinger, and the cover was pencilled by Curt Swan and inked by Stan Kaye, featuring the issue's first of three stories. All three 9 page stories were drawn by the same art team of penciller Curt Swan and inker John Forte, and have been reprinted in SHOWCASE PRESENTS: SUPERMAN vol. III.

- THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF JIMMY OLSEN was written by Otto Binder.

- JIMMY OLSEN, SUPERGIRL'S PAL was also written by Otto Binder, and reprinted in SHOWCASE PRESENTS: SUPERGIRL vol. I.

- JIMMY OLSEN, JUVENILE DELINQUENT was written by Robert Bernstein.

Also highlighted in this episode are the issue's ads and other features, including the letter column JIMMY OLSEN'S PEN-PALS.

Adam Dechanel, writer for the SUPERMAN HOMEPAGE, is also writer and co-producer of THE JUNGLE BOOK, a play that will be performed at The Lion & The Unicorn Theatre in London, England from December 13, 2013 through January 14, 2014. If you are going to be in Great Britain during this time, and would be interested in attending this play, call 08444-771-000. To learn more about the production go to http://www.thejunglebook.eu/.

Finally, Al Plastino posted a picture of himself on facebook recently, holding his original art for the story, SUPERMAN'S MISSION FOR PRESIDENT KENNEDY. This story was scheduled to be published during the month of November 1963, but was pulled from the publication schedule after his assassination. It would later be published in SUPERMAN 170, which was covered back in Episode 49, December 10, 2008. He had meant for his original art for the story to be donated to the JFK Presidential Library, but recently discovered that it was up for auction. After checking with the JFK Library, which could not find any record that the art had ever been donated to the Library, Mr. Plastino tried to get the art back from Heritage Auction. According to Mr. Plastino, they informed him that he no longer had rights to the art, and would not reveal the identity of the art's consignor.

A spokesman for Heritage Auction replied to someone's facebook post, stating that the art had first been sold at a Sothby's auction in 1993. The consignor Heritage was working with had an excellent track record with them,, and they had no reason to doubt that he had the right to sell the art. The spokesman also explained that the picture showing Mr. Plastino holding the art for the title page was taken at the New York ComiCon. A Heritage employee was talking with Mr. Plastino, and he wanted to look at it, and another Heritage employee took the picture.

If Mr. Plastino is unable to get his art back, let's hope whoever buys the art will honor his original wishes for the original pages and donate them to the JFK Presidential Library.

The theme of this podcast is PLANS IN MOTION, composed by Kevin MacLeod, and part of the royalty free music library at http://incompetech.com/.

Superman and all related characters are trademark and copyright DC Comics. Any art shown on this podcast is for entertainment purposes only, and not for profit. I make no claims of ownership of these images, nor do I earn any money from this podcast.

Thanks for listening to the SUPERMAN FAN PODCAST and, as always, thanks to Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, creators of Superman!